metal with a wood lathe?

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a0jc

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A friend recently entertained me with the idea of turning metal with a wood lathe. Is this really possible? If this is possible, can you turn gun parts like barrels? I imagine the metal would have to be pretty soft and therefore useless. But I'm giving the benefit of doubt and ask if anyone has tried this.
 
a0jc said:
A friend recently entertained me with the idea of turning metal with a wood lathe. Is this really possible? If this is possible, can you turn gun parts like barrels? I imagine the metal would have to be pretty soft and therefore useless. But I'm giving the benefit of doubt and ask if anyone has tried this.
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Rockwell Delta used to sell a cross slide and compound that fit on some of their 10 and 11 inch swing wood lathes to use them as metal lathes. Made them into a pretty decent facsimile of a patternmakers lathe too.

Before you go and figure out all this about soft and useless metal, consider that to make the barrel in the first place, it had to be soft and easy to machine! There are not a lot of parts in a rifle that need to be hard.

Really, if you want to kick it around a bit and try, go for it! start out with some cheap barstock, and hand held tooling. Maybe a take-off milsurp barrel, just to see what can be done with files and sandpaper, and a bunch of time.
Might help to read up on watchmaking lathe techniques, as the hand held cutting bit is doing the same exact thing, as the watchmakers graver does.

Mostly, though, I would suggest that the wood lathe be used for what it is good at, and get a cheap metal lathe to cut metal with, and save yourself the frustration.

Oh yeah! Look up metal spinning, and see if it gives you any ideas towards making metal stuff on a wood lathe. The wood lathe is fairly appropriate for that sort of work.

Cheers
Trev
 
I own both and a wood lathe has no business turning steel. A wood lathe has no tool post only a tool rest and wood lathes turn rediculously fast and don't have a self centering chuck and no power feed and so on and so on. There are to many differences.
 
There are self centering chucks out for wood lathes,
I have a oneway and is a great chuck.
That is the 1 st thing a wood turner should get.
I have used it
to polish up 22 rifle barrels - used wood plugs in each end
of the barrel to hold it , works better than a metal lathe,
also I have reverse which is handy.
But a wood lathe turns to fast for metal cutting,
thou I have made small firing pins on it, using a small
carbide cutter over the tool rest- free hand.
A high grade wood lathe is as much money as a small
china made metal lathe.
 
Well, they turn at different speeds. And they are made completely different. I would never do metal on a wood. It would just be wrong and you will most likely break something. Wood on a metal is fine though.
 
Wow, thanks for the responses guys; more than I thought. I'm aware that it's not appropriate for a wood lathe to turn metal hence their names. But I'm still interested if it's possible because it'll save me a trip across town to a hobby store that let's people use their metal lathe. Also, living in Canada, people aren't too keen on you pulling out guns or gun parts. Plus, it's just plain ol' interesting to see what is possible.

I came across this site on my google search:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4579195_using-wood-lathes-turn-metal.html
 
While it may well be possible it would be a labour mired in frustration to try to do anything other than some cleaning up with a barrel in a wood lathe of any sort. But small parts such as firing pins? Sure, with care. And brass or aluminium alloy stuff? Sure, up to a point.

The precision would come from much trial and error, measurements and tossing of parts that you went to far on.

As inspiration clocks and watches were and still are made on miniature lathes that are functionally copies of wood lathes.

Would I do it? NOT ON MY LIFE! But I've got both at hand so I'm not forced into such desparate thoughts.... :D
 
Like BigJD said, you can use a combination of angle grinder/sander and files to work up a fairly decent job if you pay attention and work carefully.

Be mindful of overheating the barrel and causing expansion.

I have done this quite a bit, not even on a wood lathe but on a home-made mandrel setup.
 
Your basic wood lathe is all done with hand tools. Metal lathe the bits lock in and the whole thing moves on axis. Seems if you enjoy your hands, it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Metal lathe is a good investment though, much more enjoyable to work.
 
Before I had a lathe and was a poor student I made several parts using a drill in a vise Files and grinders. I made several firing pin including a 76 winchester and mauser 71 using this method.
It is far from ideal to improvise like this or with a wood lath but if you have the skill, do the research an practice on scrap you can do amazing stuff using what you have. If you have any access to modern equipment use it. if you cant afford the proper tools or to pay someone else practice before you try it on anything of value.
 
For accuracy, you must have a metal lathe, especially for anything to do with firearms aside from stocks. They can be a bit pricy but there are some used ones that are in good condition. The bearing play in the headstock is the most important factor to check out. Too much play and you can't hold a decent tolerance.
 
What I'm getting from everybody is that using a wood lathe is possible but would be hard as #### unless your working on small or soft pieces. Bigger parts would require much skill, experience and patience. Am I right?

Seeing as a metal lathe can do wood, what would be a good mini metal lathe?
 
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